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The True (Philadelphia) Story about No Question...
In the year 1997 a manager had a group called Blakmale which consisted of two members at that time. They needed a third member, so they called this guy from New York. They told the guy that they had a singing opportuniy for him, so he comes down to philly for the situation and meets with the guys in which they gelled, and a fourth party which who was not a member of the group, wrote a song which at the time was wack from listening to the demo, until the third members arranged it and made it hot to deaf. When the product was done, everyone involed was estatic and we knew it was going to be a hit. One of the origianal two members backed out because he said it wasn't his calling. The third member then discovered an artist at an open mike at 52nd and walnut. The third members had family who supported him in promotions which made the group excel. Although the promotion was done at a small residence, the Philadelphian style promotion consisted of around the clock graphic design, hiting the street, storefronts, and local record stores, train stations, The South Street Strip, the Plato, shcools, and practically everywhere that there was people.
After a while the local radio stations were on the air trying to track down this group called blakmale. Along with radio play, everyone were catching on to this soulful trio. They began to do local appearances such as Sisters, which was there first show befor 5,000 people, Ginuwine also performed at the show. The person who produce the track almost got into a fight with the management at the first show because he didn't give any permission to have anything released The management didn't even tell him that they were having a show. They also performed at Robinhood Dale East, Unity Day, and had there first TV debut on Dood Day Philadelphia. They "Wowed attendees at the Emerging-Artist showcase" at the IAAAM convention in washington D.C. quoted writer J.R. Reynolds; Billbord Magazine. As the group did more and more shows it became overwhelming for the manager to do everything, so he took on a second partner, basically as a financer. Familiar with Big Red, a character in the five heart beats, that would describe the management team. The managers would devide them in order to conquer them. He would get into there heads
individually, giving them ideas of being the solo act. So everyone was trying to out do one another. The management had everybody working for them , building a team, and wasn't paying anybody. This includes, photographers, video producers, coreographer, music producers, etc. The third member had a friend that was an A & R at Sony Records. The A & R loved them, took them under his wing and at that point the group were pretty much signed with Sony Records. They came back to philly to celebrate when one of the members told management that they've been to New York, thats when the stuff hit the fan.
The third member who tried to keep everyone on the same page, tried to skool them about there credits, royalties, points, etc... was a threat to management because they were unsigned. The management constantly pressured the artist to sign a contract which ties them directly to them, and the third member was telling them to hold out because it wasn't in the best interest for them as artists. The management knew they had to get rid of him. So they called him up and asked to meet him somewhere. The member met up with them, got into there luxury vehicle and went for a long ride, took him to a park and threatened to rough him up and leave him there if he didn't resign from the group. So he resigned. The song was still in full rotation on all the local radio staions, including Power 99FM to name a few. The management ran into some legal technicalities in which they found out that the name blakmale didn't belong to them. They thought about changing the spelling but changed the name to No Question. Under pressure, they where getting closer to there situation with Sony records so they had to replace the third member. The problem was the origional third member was the backbone of the group, lead vocalist, and arranger of there tracks. The member which was brought into the situation by the third member, found himself replacing the one who brought him into the situation in the first place. After
doing this a couple of times, they could never find anyone else to take that members place, thats when the group spiraled, they even brought in a fourth member to the group. Even though that third party left the group, the management kept calling him, because they knew they needed that sound. It came to a point were they wanted him to arange there vocals at shows. He wouldn't do it. They eventually talked him into working with the groups vocals, writing and aranging there songs, which lasted only two albums. After not getting paid from the first album and the second album from verbal and handshake agreements, he refused to do anymore work on there album. Come to find out other people wern't paid on the album either, producers, various instrument soloist, musicians, etc. The managent has a reputation of not paying anyone and using people as a stepping stone. The group had national success and performed some
tours, but due to bad direction the group was at a stand still, working 9 to 5's, driving public trasportation, and are pretty much waiting for there contracts to expire with management.
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